What will be my weekly letter

January 1, 2022

Hola hola!!! Feliz Año Nuevo!! 2022 I can't even believe it!! So crazy to have finished the year in which I was a missionary every single day. 

Not so quite night here in Aimogasta. Fireworks that sounded like cannons. 

Another exciting and adventurous week that left Elder Monday and I saying "wow that was another flat out miracle from the Lord" at the end of every night. Here are some highlights!!

Highlights 

- Los Contreras!! They are the actually best!! A few really big things with them this week wow. Analía and her sister Karina were able to make it to church on Sunday which was huge! But sadly Ivan, the uncle, was having a really tough day and couldn't make it. And Karina actually lives about an hour away but we got her passed off to the elders there and all should be great for her. But all other things with the progress of Ivan and Analía couldn't be better, there are so crazy elect it is insane. We asked them on Monday which days we would be able to meet with them this week and they told us we could come over every day if we wanted haha. We settled for 3 times a week and have been able to have some of the most powerful lessons of my mission. We finished up teaching the Plan of Salvation which especially touched Ivan as he lost his wife and both his parents recently. The biggest key for both of them is they have been really getting into reading the Book of Mormon. They're both flying through it and it is so powerful to see the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in their lives, enlightening their understanding and changing them. I could not be more grateful for the miracle it is to meet them and am so excited for their baptism on the 16th! 

- It has been HOT!! Yesterday it hit 100°F which made it really fun to bike in haha. Really it's not bad and the people here are so kind, lots of people offer us fruit and water. And it was especially worth a particularly long trek up this dirt jungle road to visit this member family. It is the sweetest abuelita and her three daughters and all their kids at the top of the mountain haha. We were finally made it up there they gave us figs from their trees, we had an awesome lesson, and best of all we met two of her grandchildren, one girl who's 23 and another boy who is 19, who haven't been baptized but said they want to be! We were able put them on date for the 22nd!! The whole family is incredible and it was a definitely a miracle. 

- In addition to being blessed with the heat, we haven't had water in our pension for 3 days this week haha. 2 days without a shower after  biking in 100° made for a very sticky and stinky Elder Jackson but it made me super grateful for the luke warm trickle shower we have when it came back on! Honestly things like don't seem as important right now haha. And a little tender mercy was there was huge rain storm one night so I was able washed off my head in the water that came of the roof the next morning. 

- The bikes have been adventurous but overall q huge blessing too! My seat might have fallen off while I was riding one day and the handle bars nearly fell off one night as well, but there was a less active member who just happens to live two houses down. He fixed them right up and he said him and his family will be at church this week so I will say it was a win! And Elder Monday's chain came off under 10 times if I had to estimate which is pretty solid all things considered. It's all just part of the fun. 

- A couple other people we were able to find this week that seem crazy solid!! One morning we were out visiting some people and this guy pulls up on a motorcycle and says hey do you all have a second to talk? Of course we said yes and we followed him around the corner to his house where were met him and the la Familia Diaz. They moved here right before the pandemic from another part of Argentina, where they met with the missionaries and had over all the time. They have 6 kids, one of which actually got baptized, and the best part is the parents are actually married! They just went out of town for about a week for the New Year